w e l c o m e
salaam ....konnichiwa....hello....bonjour....hola....shalom....namaste
My name is Brian Oliver Sheppard.
Welcome to this, my personal, admittedly egoistic, website; I am working on another site devoted to Anarchism & Direct Democracy that will probably grow to envelope this one, so that this web page becomes an "about the author"-type of resource. If you would like to help with the Anarchism & Direct Democracy site, e-mail me at generalstrike@hotmail.com. Minarchists, Ayn Rand Objectivists, Libertarian Party members, and anarcho-capitalists need not apply, though I love debating you all, especially when you say things like: "But wouldn't you rather have a benevolent boss as your leader rather than corrupt elected officials?" (This is something that a self-proclaimed Objectivist actually asked me.)
To the right is a distorted picture of me in the Historic New Orleans Voodoo Museum, taken in January of 1997 by my friend Jahanur. I have distorted the picture somewhat [if you want to see the picture non-distorted, click HERE], though you can probably make enough of me out to be asking yourself: "He looks like a lifestyle anarchist -- surely someone that looks like this couldn't be a serious political anarchist!" How does it feel to be supporting the status quo by thinking such thoughts? Catering to others' ignorance is something I refuse to do in my dress, beliefs, or aesthetic preferences. The fact that I'm pictured in the Voodoo Museum reflects, I feel, some of my interests, most of which are confined to the Humanities and Social Sciences: Religion & Spirituality, Various Cultures and the Anthropological & Sociological dimensions to them, Philosophy, Art and the Avant-Garde, and, perhaps most importantly, Literature: Poetry, Fiction, Drama, and Non-Fiction. I am a writer myself, and consider my interest in literatures of the world to be of primary importance, as it was through my love of reading that I came to know anarchism and the plight of oppressed peoples across the world. The beautiful poetry, stories, and non-fiction accounts that others have written, whether European or Asian, South American or African, have had a lasting effect on my conscious, and my conscience. The act of reading another's thoughts is an intimate, humanitarian experience; it is a one-sided conversation with the dialogue of the human spirit. Some would decry the reading of books and insist that only "real-life" experience and knowledge can teach. I believe in the potential of both.
I like to travel. I have been to Africa and Mexico, but live in the United States of America, in Texas. Traveling is an expense, however, that I cannot afford most of the time. Though I am currently a college student, I would abandon my studies in an instant if I could be given a financially-feasible means of continual travel. I have more of an interest in traveling to so-called "developing" nations than I do to Western nations. There is a feeling of authenticity, of austerity and integrity, that I glean from peoples of non-Western (by Western, I generally mean the G-7 nations) countries that I find lacking in most Americanized individuals.
I have worked several jobs, mostly computer-related,
though I would like to be able to fully concentrate on learning and school.
I worked at GTE Internet Solutions, saving up enough money to go to Africa,
and quit my job once I had done so. I would like to make my living as a
writer, but, as Marx said, "Better a galley slave in Turkey than a
freelance writer in America." Writers get paid notoriously little,
especially dramatists, short story writers, and poets. Of course, these
are the forms of writing I enjoy the most! Am I destined to a life of poverty
if I pursue these interests? I have had several works published in either
paper-based or web-based zines, am listed in the World Wide Freelance Directory,
and was recently awarded a residency by an artists' colony in Wisconsin
on the merit of my work. I have also had a chapbook of poetry published.(
I think of Oliver Stone's Nixon wherein Nixon condemns one of his
rivals: "He's just a pansy poet Socialist!") Ultimately, I'd like
to be a teacher or professor.
Enough babble. Here are some links wthin my site:
PHILOSOPHY | POLITICAL THINKERS |
MY WRITING | Other
There are 5 values that social anarchism promotes:
1) Peace
2) Freedom
3) Compassion
4) Equality
5) Justice
If you believe in a society of equality and egalitarianism, then capitalism is a system you will espouse only at the instant of being a hypocrite: by virtue of its stress on competition, of being "number one," and of climbing to the top of heirarchy to achieve success and prestige, capitalism demands inequality as its precondition. If there is competition involved, someone will win and dominate, and will therefore have power over others. There can only be a boss if there are underlings, so to speak. Businesses are structured the way that totalitarian governments are; and, given that most people spend 1/5 of their lives in the workplace, in a totalitarian environment, only to have one's labor commodified for someone's else's benefit, one can see why there is an urgent need to extend the princples of direct democracy to the corporate environment. A laborer's labor is his/her own, and s/he should have a say in how this labor is used -- not just in choosing what sort of job to apply for, but in how, once in the workplace, the work is applied towards the goals at hand. Not only this, but if the goals at hand are even worth working towards. To say that workers should not be allowed this right is to say that you believe in an "excess of democracy," that democracy, in other words, does not belong in some places. Is democracy the ideal solution for maintaining some form of an active control over the governing of one's life? If so, why is it suddenly not the case in the workforce? The democratization and decentralization of all institutions -- thus eliminating heirarchy -- is the ultimate aim of all serious anarchism. If you perceive this as a threat to your current level of comfort, ask yourself why, and then reflect upon whose comfort level would be increased.
"I am a fanatic lover of liberty, considering it as the unique condition under which intelligence, dignity and human happiness can develop and grow; not the purely formal liberty conceded, measured out and regulated by the State, an eternal lie which in reality represents nothing more than the privilege of some founded on the slavery of the rest; not the individualistic, egoistic, shabby, and fictitious liberty extolled by the School of J.-J. Rousseau and other schools of bourgeois liberalism, which considers the would-be rights of all men, represented by the State which limits the rights of each -- an idea that leads inevitably to the reduction of the rights of each to zero. No, I mean the only kind of liberty that is worthy of the name, liberty that consists in the full development of all the material, intellectual and moral powers that are latent in each person; liberty that recognizes no restrictions other than those determined by the laws of our own individual nature, which cannot properly be regarded as restrictions since these laws are not imposed by any outside legislator beside or above us, but are immanent and inherent, forming the very basis of our material, intellectual and moral being -- they do not limit us but are the real and immediate conditions of our freedom." --Mikhail Bakunin "At the risk of seeming ridiculous, I must say that the true revolutionary is guided by great feelngs of love." --Ernesto "Che" Guevara "People who talk about revolution and class struggle without referring explicitly to everyday life, without understanding what is subversive about love and positive in the refusal of constraint, have corpses in their mouths." --Raoul Vanageim "No man has any right to rule who is not better than the people over whom he rules." --Cyrus of Greece
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